1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus equipped with a colorimeter unit that measures the colors of a colorimetric pattern recorded on a recording medium using a color-measuring device.
2. Related Art
In printed-matter production sites, color proofing has been performed in which proofing is performed before final printing, and it is determined, with reference to an image displayed on the printed sample proof and a color patch for indication that is displayed together with the image, whether the color of image data is reproduced with high fidelity.
On the other hand, digital matching is widely used in which the color of an image on a CRT monitor and the color of an image displayed on the print sample output from an output unit, such as a printer or an image sensor, are electrically matched on the basis of a color management file called a profile. The digital matching is executed in print-data production sites and printed-matter production sites (see JP-A-11-326056).
In recent years, color proofing, called offpress proofing, is widely used in which a proof sheet is directly output from print data for making a printing plate to reduce the time required for proofing, and an ink-jet recording apparatus equipped with a color-measuring device is used to output such a proof sheet.
A colorimeter that includes the color-measuring device is accommodated in a housing frame together with a drier and is incorporated in an ink-jet recording apparatus, as an integrated colorimeter unit. The colorimeter is supported by a main frame, and the drier is supported by a drier frame. The fastening of the main frame and the drier frame and the fastening of these frames and the housing frame are performed using screws to achieve high-rigidity frame structure as a whole.
The main body of the ink-jet recording apparatus is slightly distorted, for example, in the surface of the main body facing the color-measuring device and holding a recording medium, due to variations in component accuracy, assembly accuracy, etc. In such a case, the high-rigidity frame structure causes the problems below.
The high-rigidity frame structure of the colorimeter unit causes variations in the distance between the color-measuring device and the holding surface (surface to be measured, hereinafter referred to as a colorimetric surface) in a region to be measured (hereinafter referred to as a colorimetric region) if the holding surface has the distortion, with the colorimeter unit mounted in the recording-apparatus main body. That is, the colorimeter unit cannot be deformed so as to absorb the distortion of the holding surface to thereby shape the overall form along the distortion by itself because of the high rigidity of the frame structure. This precludes the distance between the color-measuring device and the holding surface from being held constant in the entire colorimetric region due to the influence of the distortion of the holding surface. The inconstant distance in the entire colorimetric region will decrease the colorimetric accuracy of the color-measuring device.
In particular, a large-sized recording apparatus has the problem of generating the distortion to decrease the colorimetric accuracy because the holding surface that holds the recording medium is long in the crosswise direction of the recording apparatus.